Duh...I thought I Posted These...

Here are the photos that were on the cameras we sent to Harbin CWI before we traveled to pick up Jacob. In my completely unbiased opinion, he is the most adorable kid I've ever seen! ;o)

How We Spent Our August

Here are some photos of how we spent our August:

- First baseball game with Baba (LI Ducks)
- Garvies Point Museum with Aunt Joyce and Brandon
- First night in his big boy bed
- The park
- Meeting Shu Shu Pete's new puppy, Diggum
- Playing with his Build-A-Bear
- Hanging out with his cousins

We've had a fun summer.

Second Day of School, Riverhead Polish Festival & Hanging Out With Cousin Brandon

Here are some photos from Friday and the weekend. Jacob had a great time at school on Friday (and told me I didn't have to stay!). Saturday, we ventured out to Riverhead to the Polishtown Festival and Jacob had his first pony ride. Today, Aunt Joyce and cousin Brandon came over for a visit. Jacob had a great time with everyone.

Summer 2010 - Miscellaneous Photos

Jacob takes up a lot of time and I haven't been able to post as often as I'd like, so I'm lumping a lot of stuff into this post.

We have had a busy and fun summer so far. Here are some photos from our travels.

They include:

- Tom and Jacob modeling their orange peel vampire teeth;
- Photos from our local park visit;
- Playtime with Duncan and Andrew;
- M&K Alumni Party at Steve & Anna's; and
- Dean's 6th birthday family get together.

Bite Your Tongue!!

So, the other day I was out and my niece, Jessica, was trying to get Jacob to nap. Jacob decided that he had no interest in napping, but he was very interested in jumping up and down in the crib and laughing.

Click here to see how well that turned out. He bit a nice big divot into his tongue and got blood all over the place, scaring the absolute crap out of my niece and himself in the process.

One would assume that he would learn from this experience, but no, he decided he wanted to jump around in the crib today when I put him down for his nap, until I told him to stick out his tongue, took a couple of pictures and showed him what he had done the last time he decided to jump where he's not supposed to.

First Day of Montessori

Jacob had his first day of Montessori pre-school today. It was just for a couple of hours, until he has bonded with someone there and I feel comfortable leaving him.

He had water time fun, story and song time and lunch. Tomorrow he goes back in the afternoon; I'm not quite sure what they are going to have planned.

Here are some pictures of him on his way, at the school and after we got home.

He decided when we got home that all of the cars in the bay window had been bad and were in need of a time out. There's a couple of shots of them all lined up being punished. Pretty funny.

More tomorrow...

Poor Neglected Blog

Sorry, blog, but your main subject takes up ALL of my time and I've been neglecting you. Dear blog, to help ease your pain, here are some videos of Jacob from when we were in China.

To those of you who get to see Jacob, you really see how well his English has progressed just by watching these videos. He's a pretty amazing kid and we are lucky to have him.

My Wacky Son

Here are some pictures of my wacky son, hamming it up for the camera...

Shu Shu Peter Gives Xinxin A Haircut

We really liked the haircut that we got for Xinxin in China, so we asked Shu Shu Peter to help recreate it. Xinxin was much more cooperative in China than in here, but Shu Shu managed to get it done anyway. You can see photos here.

Xinxin's Birthday Weekend

We celebrated Xinxin's 3rd birthday this weekend, his first birthday with us.

On Friday we had the families over for cake and Saturday was the kids' party. He had a great time (and a couple of time-outs; sharing is not his strong-suit), got wonderful presents and basked in the love of his family and friends.

You can see the photos from the weekend (and the days leading to the weekend) here.

Hello Again, Hello

I've been gone for a while, busy adjusting to life as an "instant" parent of a toddler. It's been challenging and rewarding. Xinxin is such a wonderful, active, smart, amazing boy. You really have to experience him to really see all that he is.

Tom and I have been told by so many people that we did a wonderful thing and that Xinxin is lucky to be adopted and removed from the orphanage. We feel as if we're the lucky ones; we really struck gold with our son. He is amazing. The love that we feel for him is beyond belief. The sheer joy that fills my heart just looking at him is enough to make me tear up.

I have a bunch of photos that have been taken since we've been home. You can find them here.

We're Home (A Little Belated Post)!!

Hi everyone. This is my first chance to blog since we've been home. Xinxin is sleeping and I'm multitasking (blogging, laundry, tidying up).

We had a pretty uneventful trip home, thankfully. All of the flights within China were delayed, so we were pretty worried about the flight home with the little man. It worked out pretty decently - except for a train wreck of a time trying to get from Beijing airport to the hotel on the 11th. The flight was, of course, late and by the time we landed, the shuttle was not operational. So we had to hail a cab and hope the driver knew the hotel. Well, he didn't. So we got out of the cab, Tom's backpack opened up and stuff fell all over the street. I was carrying Xinxin in the Ergo pack on my chest, so we're going crazy trying to get everything picked up. We go back into the airport and Tom finds someone to write the hotel name down in Chinese and we head back out to try it again. At this point, I am SO DONE with China. I have an overtired, cranky child having a fit in my arms, we're missing stuff and trying to get our bags, etc. together. We get back on the taxi line and get a driver that takes us to the hotel. Our 3 hour flight turned into an 8 1/2 hour travesty. Why does the adoption agency schedule flights so late when nothing runs on time in China????

We've been home for just over a week now and have been adjusting to life with Xinxin and he's been adjusting to life with us. It's been interesting - sometimes fun, sometimes challenging, always happy to have him in our lives. He is a very energetic, smart boy and we can't wait to see him thrive here.

This past week we've spent together - the three of us, but tomorrow Tom goes back to work. I will miss his help tremendously. We've been to Lake Ronkonkoma, Atlantis Marine World and The LI Game Farm. Xinxin loves animals. You can see photos of our first day home and the Lake trip here, photos of the Atlantis outing here and photos of the trip to the Game Farm here.

Off to switch the laundry before he wakes up and misses me. Mommy can't stray too farm from him right now.

Leaving Guangzhou

We leave Guangzhou today and fly to Beijing. We are staying overnight at a hotel at the airport and we leave tomorrow (Saturday) for home!!!

We had breakfast with the McDonalds and Printys and lunch with the McDonalds. It was hard to leave them. I started crying when we left their room. They have been with us pretty much the whole way. They are wonderful people and helped us out a lot. It was hard to say goodbye to them.

Red Couch Photo Day

Today was the red couch photo for everyone in our group. All the kids were in traditional Chinese dress. Xinxin got a haircut yesterday and he looked fantastic. My boy is beautiful.

You can see the pictures from the haircut (they had a cute kitten in the salon) and the photo session here.

The Zoo

We went ot the zoo today. Xinxin was excited to see the tigers and the lions. We got some good video of a lion roaring. I tried uploading it, but it's not working.

The strange thing was that they only gave us an hour and a half to tour the zoo, something which we could have spent 3 hours touring at our leisure, had lunch, etc. As it was, we had to race around like crazy people in the unbelievable heat and humidity. We didn't get to see everything, but at least Xinxin got to see the lions and tigers. Click here to see the photos.

Guangzhou

We are finally in Guangzhou, starting the second leg of our trip.

The trip here was terrible; a 5 hour flight (with connection) turned into an 11 hour nightmare. Xinxin was pretty good throughout the process, although very restless. He's an energetic little guy (even when sick), so it was hard for him to be stuck in a seat. He is also back to "Mama, mama, mama" all the time and really only tolerates Baba at specific times - mealtime, bath time and when they are playing.

We had to wake him up in the middle of his nap in order to get out the hotel and to the airport, then we were stuck in the airport for a couple of hours before the flight. Then they load us onto a bus to take us to the plane and we sit there for 15 minutes (an eternity for a toddler). Then we get on the plane and we're delayed for over an hour. I finally get Xinxin to sleep and we land at one of the smallest airports I've ever seen. We get off the plane, walk across the tarmac, then stand in a lobby for about 10 minutes, then back on another plane, then we're delayed again! ARGH!!! I finally get Xinxin to sleep, then we land in Guangzhou. We got to the hotel at 1 AM and find out there's no crib. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? We get up to the room and I get him into bed with me to try and get him to sleep and he's completely punch drunk a this point. We hear a knock at the door and there's the crib. Thank God!

This morning we get up around 7:30, we all bathe and go to breakfast, where we run into the McDonald's, who traveled with us to Harbin. They are really good people and we've enjoyed all the time we've spent with them. We also ran into a couple of the other families that we started the trip with in Beijing. It was wonderful to see everyone with their kids.

At 10 AM we met in the lobby to go for the medical exam and TB test. The place was a swap meet. People everywhere (I'll post pictures here. We figured we were in for a long wait, but it went pretty quickly. Thankfully, we didn't have to have all the shots for Xinxin, since we are a non-Hague family. He just had to have the TB test shot. Our guide told him that he was going to get a shot, then a piece of candy and he took it like a trooper. The kid likes his candy. Chip off the old block!

We're in the room now. Xinxin and Tom are taking a nap. We've all been sick the past couple of days. Xinxin came to us with a runny and stuffy nose, diarrhea and a cough and he's passed the cough and head cold to his Mama and Baba. Thanks kid. :o)

More later.

Gotcha Day Video

Click here to see our Gotcha Day video. It all happened so fast (the kids were supposed to arrive late and showed up early with no warning), that when he walked into the room, Tom just dropped the video camera.

The video is sideways, but you can see us with Jacob. As I get more time (when will that be?), I'll upload more videos from the trip.

My thoughts so far...

It's June 2nd (I think). It's 1:46 in the afternoon. Xinxin is still sleeping and I'm so happy that he's finally napping.

It has been a roller coaster ride so far - so happy to have him, so tired from not sleeping (he hasn't wanted daddy at all - all mommy, all the time). This morning, Tom was able to distract him long enough for me to take a shower unwatched. He goes to the bathroom with me, runs after me wherever I go.

He is starting to misbehave which is good, because he's getting comfortable and adjusting to us. I feel bad when I have to discipline him because he looks so upset, but it has to be done. He must have had his caretakers at the orphanage wrapped around his finger because whenever he does something wrong, he goes into "cute boy" mode, tilting his head and smiling at me. They told me on gotcha day that he gets a lot of attention because he is so cute and I can see he knows how to work the system.

He is also a tremendous flirt. Every morning he flirts with the waitresses in the restaurant and every woman he sees in the lobby and wherever we go. He is absolutely adorable and has quite a personality on him.

The process so far has been okay, a little long in spots but okay. Yesterday (the Chinese legal ceremony) took forever. The kids had to see their caretakers again, which didn't go over too well for the other family. Poor Huahua was inconsolable after seeing her caretaker again. Xinxin was a little better.

It's been pretty hard on Tom; even though we expected him to bond to one over the other, it's hard for him. He's a little frustrated, but I told him soon enough he won't be able to shake him and he'll wish he was back hanging on me.

Off to do a few things before my little man wakes up.

More later...

Second Visit to Civil Affairs & Tiger Park Visit

Click here for photos from our second visit to Civil Affairs (at the end of the "24 hour harmonious period"), where we became a forever family in the eyes of the Chinese government and for photos from Tiger Park, which Jacob absolutely loved.

Gotcha Day!!

Gotchas Day went by so fast, we didn't get any video of him entering the room or the hand-off. Mostly because they told us they were going to be late getting in from the orphanage, then they just walked into the room. There really wasn't a hand-off, since Jacob came into the room and came right over to us when he saw us.

He kept wanting to go with his caretaker, which is understandable,m since she's been a constant in his life, but he seemed to adjust pretty well that day once we left.

He spins around like the second hand on a clock when he sleeps. He slept with us the first night, but we put him in the crib once he fell asleep last night. That was my first night's sleep since we got here. I really needed it; I was exhausted.

He wants mommy all the time. Always up, always mommy. We're calling him Xinxin right now (pronounced Zhen Zhen), so we don't confuse him. We're slowly atarting to work some English in, but we want to take it slow on the trip.

He's absolutely adorable, and I love him more than I can say.

He's obviously starting to feel more comfortable with us, since he's starting to misbehave. All expected; no surprises so far.

Don't forget to check out the photos on photobucket. Click here for Gotcha Day.

More later, as time - and Jacob - permit.